#17DaysOfSillyFaces Wrap Up
Eighteen days ago I began an Instagram campaign that featured the strange expressions that I've managed to capture musicians making during performances. I dubbed the project #17DaysOfSillyFaces, and was a little nervous about whether people would understand what I was going for, or if they would just think that I was being a dick and making fun of the artists.
Luckily, it seems like people got it! The whole idea of this campaign was to showcase the fact that these musicians are so passionate about what they do that in front of crowds of sometimes thousands of people they still get so into their craft that they stop worrying about what they look like. I consider this a major accomplishment on their part, as most people aren't ever able to pull that off.
The feedback on this project has been great though. A few of the photos were shared on other pages, I got some new followers and a number of great comments. One of the images was manipulated into a Popeye cartoon, and I had numerous people approach me in person to say how much they're enjoying the campaign and hope that I'll do it again sometime.
Based on this feedback, I really might!
It was also a great exercise for me to practice my Instagram skills. At the beginning of this I figured I'd miss a day or two here and there and have to go for multiple posts somedays, but I was actually able to post consistently at least once a day for over two weeks, which I think is a streak for me at this point. I'm also now into a routine of posting, so I hope to be able to keep this going.
I realized how much easier it is to consistently post when the images themselves are already chosen out and ready to go, only requiring the text to finish off the post. So this is something I plan to continue doing to make this already simple task even simpler.
I was also able to try out different posting times to get a feel for when I can receive the most/best feedback on my photos. As these were all related images with similar hashtags, I figured that most variables were removed and I could get a proper reading on when my best times to post are. Turns out, Fridays at noon are the absolute best time to post, and Fridays in general are the best day, but for a daily average, posts made at or around 9 am received the most feedback. To give myself a little extra time, if I can manage to post between 9 am and 12 pm that seems to be a pretty good window as well.
This information is based purely on the #17DaysOfSillyFaces campaign (September 27 - October 13), but if I open up the range a bit to include everything between August 1st and today, the stats change very little.
With the larger time range, the absolute best time to post is Saturday at 9 am, Fridays remain the best overall day, and the best time to post on any given day switches to 1 pm.
So from this I now know to save the posts that I think are best for Fridays and Saturdays, and to do my daily posting between 9 am and 1 pm.
All of this info, by the way, was obtained by using Instagram-Stats.com, which is currently my favourite tool for tracking how my IG is doing.
But that's enough on the data for the moment, let's now take a look at the actual images that were posted over the last two-and-a-half weeks.
Chris Demakes of Less Than Jake Vans Warped Tour, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI July 2016
MC Lars The Dance Cave at Lee's Palace, Toronto, ON October 2015
Green Jelly The Dominion House, Windsor, ON
December 2012
Jordan Tough of Cowboys in Cardigans Venue Music Hall, Windsor, ON
November, 2015
John Reis of Drive Like Jehu Riot Fest, Downsview Park, Toronto, ON September 2015
Josh Bradford (L) and Paul Marc Rousseau of Silverstein
Vans Warped Tour, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI July 2015
Minors Barronfest, The Olde Walkerville Theatre, Windsor, ON June 2016
Dylan McCarty of Elsie Binx Diesel Concert Lounge, Chesterfield, MI April 2016
Bill Manspeaker of Green Jelly
The Dominion House, Windsor, ON May 2016
Deryk Whibley of Sum 41
Vans Warped Tour, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
July 2016
Jeremy Widerman of Monster Truck
The Shelter at St Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI
May 2016
Jehnny Beth of Savages
The Shelter at St Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI
May 2016
The Battlecat
Barronfest, The Olde Walkerville Theatre, Windsor, ON June 2016
Koo Koo Kangaroo The Dance Cave at Lee's Palace, Toronto, ON October 2015
Jason Quartuccio of Elsie Binx
The Token Lounge, Westfield, MI
July 2016
Zack Roach of Senses Fail
Vans Warped Tour, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
July 2015
Chris Demakes of Less Than Jake Vans Warped Tour, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI July 2016
The top three posts pf the project were days 4, 10, and 5 (or Cowboys in Cardigans, Sum 41, and Drive Like Jehu), respectively. Again, this is going on the data from Instagram-Stats. The Sum 41 photo is the one I would say was the absolute most popular, as it was re-posted on two different fan pages (@_Sum41_ and @sum_41_online) which resulted in over 300 more interactions.
This same photo was also edited by Jamie Greer to become Popeye.
The final photo of the campaign,the second one to feature the ever-attractive Chris Demakes, also received some extra love when it was reposted by @ltjfanproblems with the caption "That time Chris tried to eat a CD."
Overall I'd say this was an extremely worthwhile project, and I am very happy to have been able to share my favourite photos with everyone. I hope to be able to run a similar campaign in the future, and it's all thanks to the wonderful feedback received on this one!
